For behavior management in my classroom, I use a classroom economy.  Students earn classroom dollars for doing their job as a student and they use those dollars to buy privileges in class or to pay fines that they have incurred for improper behavior.   Usually, if a student is misbehaving, I ask them to pay the fine, they do, and it is done.  However, if a student is having a particularly trying day, I ask them to start writing the infractions down on labels so that I can have a future record of the behaviors for report cards and parent conferences.  I then keep these in a tabbed record book that can be pulled out whenever I need to refer back to it. Today, I wanted to share with you how I made the record book :)  I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made It linky for the first time this summer!  Yay!! I like to keep the labels in a spiral notebook.  It just makes things easier for me.  But finding one with 34 sections just isn't going to ...
I don't know about you, but I am usually done by the time school is over.  All I want to do is go lay down on the couch and relax.  However life has other plans for me (as do three little kiddos and a husband, plus a house and well, you know...life!) so laying on the couch eating bon bons is just not really an option for me.  Things must get done, one of which is dinner. Making dinner.  Ugh.  The bane of my existence.   Can't we just eat cereal every night?? I suppose not. So I have discovered something that has changed everything in my household.  Wait for it...... My CROCK POT!!! Why has no one ever mentioned how incredibly amazing and fabulous (not to mention easy!) this machine is in all of my 38 years????  It really is a teachers' dream.  Set it and forget it as they used to say :) Because I am now officially obsessed with my Crock Pot, I thought I would share a few recipes with you that my kids and I enjoy.  They are easy to make and taste so yummy!  Plus,...
Every time I show a picture of my classroom as a whole, I get questions about the little boxes I have on the students' desks.  So I thought it was about time that I wrote about them. :) Can you see the black boxes on the desks??  That is what this post is about :) They truly are something very, very simple to make.   All you will need is: cardboard pencil boxes (flattened into the net) contact paper scissors brads I will have to say upfront that these cardboard boxes are given to me by my district.  They have been provided by every school I have worked at and went to (I went to school in the same district I teach for ;) )  But you can get them at any school supply place that sells things in bulk.  However, oddly enough the Velveeta box (you know, the cheese??) is the exact same shape.  You can ask your students to bring in those boxes at the beginning of the year and do the same thing with it! Anyway, once you have the boxes, covering them is rather easy. ...
I am SO glad it is summer time.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job.  I love my students.  I love everything about being a teacher....and that includes my summers off.  So what have I done while on this break (my whole week off so far??)  I thought I would link up with Doodlebugs for her weekly Five for Friday and tell you all about it! Oh...and it is 300 pages, not 70! First off, I have been busy trying to get a bit of school work done.  The first thing I was able to do was to update the 5th Grade Calendar Math Starter Kit .  It now reflects the 2014-2015 school year...so if you have it already, make sure you go over to your TpT account  (in "My Purchases") and redownload it.  I have to say, that I am loving it with the new CCSS standards.  The kids showed such growth and I KNOW it is from Calendar. (though, if you have read my blog, you know how much I love that thing!!) We went to our first beach day of the summer this week.  It was a bit overcast, ...